He answered he did not hear if that rogue, Charles Stuart, were
taken; but some of the others, he said, were taken. I told him
that if that rogue were taken, he deserved to be hanged more than
all the rest, for bringing in the Scots. Upon which he said I
spoke like an honest man; and so we parted."

At the end of the first day's journey they were met by Lord
Wilmot at the inn; and he continued to join them wherever they
rested at night, without appearing to travel with them by day.
Mistress Lane took all possible care to guard the king against
recognition, stating at every house of accommodation where they
tarried he was "a neighbour's son whom her father had lent her to
ride before her in hope that he would the sooner recover from a
quartan ague with which he had been miserably afflicted, and was
not yet free. "Which story served as sufficient excuse for his
going to bed betimes, and so avoiding the company of servants.
At the end of three days they arrived at their destination. Jane
Lane was warmly received by her cousin, and the whole party made
heartily welcome. Jane, however, did not entrust her secret to
Mistress Norton's keeping, but repeated her tale of the good
youth being newly recovered from ague, and desired a chamber
might be provided for him, and a good fire made that he might
retire early to bed. Her desires being obeyed, the king
withdrew, and was served with an excellent good supper by the
butler, a worthy fellow named Pope, who had been a trooper in the
army of Charles I., of blessed memory.

"The next morning" said the king continuing his strange story, "I
arose pretty early, having a very good stomach, and went to the
buttery-hatch to get my breakfast, where I found Pope and two or